Vol. V., No. 3.

September, 1909

BULLETIN

OF

The Phillips Exeter Academy.

Published quarterly by The Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire,
Entered March 22, 1905, at Exeter, N. H., as second-class matter,
under Act of Congress of July 16, 1894.

CONTENTS.

EDITORIAL NOTES : 1

HONORS AND PRIZES, J. A. Tufts , Sec. 4

THE RESIGNATION OF MR. HELM, Joseph S. Ford . . . 12

A BEQUEST TO THE ACADEMY AND SOME EXETER

SCHOLARSHIPS IN THE COLLEGES, Charles E. Atwood, ’77 13

ATHLETICS, PAST AND PRESENT, Joseph S. Ford . . . 13

THE ACADEMY IN WAR TIME, P. C. Du Bois, ’63; Manning
Emery , ’62; Frank Miller , ’61; J. E. Janvrin , ’56; Warren W.

Porter, ’54 ........... 19

EXETER REMINISCENCES, F. B. Sanborn, ’51 . . . . 27

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE, Mar-
shall S. Snow, ’61 . . . . . . . . . . 30

THE NEW YORK ALUMNI DINNER, Frederick S. Duncan,

’86, Sec. . . . . . . . . . . . 33

THE NEW ENGLAND ALUMNI DINNER, ?. A. Tufts, ’74, Sec. 36
THE DINNER OF THE WESTERN ALUMNI, F. Z. Stetson

Harman, ’04, Sec. .......... 38

THE PENNSYLVANIA ALUMNI DINNER, George Fry, ’00, Sec. 40

YALE-EXETER CLUB DINNER, from the Exonian ... 41

NEWS OF THE SCHOOL . . 42

Trustees’ Records, Perley Gardner, Clerk, 42; Faculty Records,

J. A. Tufts, Sec., 44; New Instructors, Charles E. Atwood, ’77, 45;
Athletics, H. A. Boss, 45; School Notes, Walter D. Head, 52.

NEWS OF THE ALUMNI 56

Report of the Reunion of the Class of 1884, Solon G. Warren,

Sec., 56; Report of the Reunion of the Class of 1889, F. E. Bar-
bour, ’89, 57; Reunion of 1885, H. D. Everett, President, 58; Class
of i8go, Secretary, 58; Important Work of Horace S. Cummings,

’59, 59; Tributes to Three Alumni, Raymond H. Arnot, ’90, 59;
Alumni Notes, Laurence M. Crosbie, ’00, 61; Graduates of 1909,

J. A. Tufts, Sec., 77.

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016

https://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnpe00snow_0

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BULLETIN OE THE PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN— A PERSONAL REMINISCENCE.

About the first of March, i860, Mr. Lincoln went to New York,
and there delivered in the Cooper Union a famous speech, which
ranks among the best of his political addresses. His son, Robert,
since then a man of distinction as minister at the Court of St. James
in England, and later as secretary of war in this country, was then
a student in the senior class at the Academy where I was preparing
for college.

After Mr. Lincoln’s address in New York, perhaps to secure a few
days of change and rest, he visited his son at Exeter. In those days
the state and the local elections in New Hampshire were held in the
spring; political feeling was then running high all over the country,
and especially in the little state of New Hampshire. The Republican
Club of Exeter arranged with Mr. Lincoln to speak upon the political
issues of the day, and on Saturday evening, March third, Mr. Lincoln
delivered in the town hall practically the same address which he had
given a few days before in New York.

We boys in the Academy were greatly excited by the coming event.
None of us thought of Mr. Lincoln then as a candidate for the Presi-
dency. We, who thought we were stalwart Republicans, were eager
for Mr. Seward, who was regarded in New England as well as in some
other parts of the country as the natural candidate for that office. We
had, to be sure, heard much of Mr. Lincoln’s famous debate with
Judge Douglas, in the race for senatorship in Illinois two years before;
but our greatest eagerness, after all, was to see the father of Robert
Lincoln, “Bob,” as we always called him. Bob Lincoln was a very
popular young fellow, a gentleman in every sense of the word; quiet in
manner, with a certain dignity of his own. He was a very good fellow,
however, and always ready for any good time and clean fun. He was
very popular with the girls of the town as well as with the boys. He
was what would be called nowadays a “good dresser,” and always
looked as well as acted the part of a gentleman. So we wanted to see
and hear the father of our friend.

On the night of the address we were all there, sitting together near
the platform. The hall, which was a very large and handsome one
for a village of only about twenty-five hundred inhabitants, and which

BULLETIN OF THE PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY.

31

would seat eight or nine hundred people, was filled early in the even-
ing. Ladies, as well as gentlemen were there, and both political parties
were well represented. About eight o’clock Professor Wentworth,
with whose exciting works on mathematics some of you are more or
less familiar, at that time president of the Republican Club of the town,
walked upon the platform, followed by two strangers. One was Judge
Underwood, of Virginia, an ardent Republican, a great friend of Mr.
Lincoln, and a man of large influence among the Union element of the
old state of Virginia. He was very stout and very short; when he sat
down upon the somewhat high chair which was reserved for him, his
feet failed to touch the floor and hung rather helplessly. The other
gentleman was Mr. Lincoln — tall, lank, awkward ; dressed in a loose,
ill-fitting, black frock coat, with black trousers, ill-fitting and somewhat
baggy at the knees. Mr. Lincoln also sat down in a chair reserved
for him, and, after some difficulty, succeeded in arranging his long legs
under or about the chair. My eyes were all for Mr. Lincoln. I saw
a man whose face impressed me as one of the most interesting as well
as one of the saddest and most melancholy faces that I had ever
seen. His hair was rumpled, his neckwear was all awry, he sat
somewhat bent in the chair, and altogether presented a very remarka-
ble, and, to us, disappointing appearance.

Judge Underwood was introduced as the first speaker, and delivered,
as I am told, a very able speech. I confess I heard none of it, nor
did those of my friends who sat near me. We sat and stared at Mr.
Lincoln. We whispered to each other: “ Isn’t it too bad Bob’s father
is so homely? Don’t you feel sorry for him?” Our feelings were
mingled ones of curious interest in the face of this melancholy looking
man and of sympathy with our friend, his son.

At last, then, Judge Underwood concluded his speech, and Mr. Lin-
coln was presented to us. He rose slowly, untangled those long legs
from their contact with the rounds of the chair, drew himself up to
his full height of six feet, four inches, and began his speech. Not ten
minutes had passed before his uncouth appearance was absolutely for-
gotten by us boys, and, I believe, by all of that large audience. For
an hour and a half he held the closest attention of every person present.
I cannot recall the details of his speech, which I afterwards read with
great care among his published addresses, but I remember how we were

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BULLETIN OF THE PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY.

carried away with the arguments, with the style, and with the rapid
change now and then from earnest, serious argument to something
which in a humorous fashion would illustrate the point which he was
endeavoring to make. His face lighted up and the man was changed;
it seemed absolutely like another person speaking to us, from the man
who had sat upon his chair looking as if he hadn’t a friend in the world.
There was no more pity for our friend Bob; we were proud of his father,
and when the exercises of the evening were over and the opportunity
was offered for those who desired to meet Mr. Lincoln, we were the
first to mount the platform and grasp him by the hand. I have always
felt that this was one of the great privileges of my life. That evening
fastened itself upon my memory in a most remarkable fashion.

The picture which I have in my possession is the man as I saw him
then, and as I always remembered him afterwards, whether I thought
of him in those days of sadness when he was listening to the reports
of the battlefield and hearing of the loss of thousands of noble men, or
when he was addressing sometimes crowds and sometimes but a few
whom he was endeavoring to convince of his own sincerity and honesty
in preserving the Union of the United States.

The growth of his beard after I saw him has always seemed to me
to have lessened somewhat the apparent strength of the lower part of
his face. I never think of him as a man with a beard, but as a man
whose jaw was smooth and showed his strength of character, and whose
eyes above were full of all the sympathy and love of the friend of his
country. I saw that face before me as I saw it in i860 when I read
of his delivery of that matchless address at Gettysburg, which has be-
come one of the classics of the English tongue. I can see it before me
as I read that beautiful letter which he wrote to Mrs. Bixby, of Boston,
full of consolation for her in the loss of five sons in defense of the Union;
a letter couched in such beauty and sincerity of expression as to make
it worthy of being placed side by side with the Gettysburg address. In
one of the colleges of Oxford University, in England, this letter has been
placed, suitably framed, upon the wall of one of its rooms, deemed
worthy of this high honor by the Oxford professors, for its dignity and
beauty of sentiment and language.

I have tried to give you an impression, made upon me when I was
but a lad, of this man who was to be one of the great, the immortal

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33

men in this world’s records. I do not think that I read into this feeling
which I had for Mr. Lincoln’s appearance and presence anything which
has come to me in later years. That may be possible, but I do not
think it is so. The Mr. Lincoln whom I now think of and whose cen-
tennial day we now celebrate is to me the sad, strong Lincoln, whose
picture stands upon the mantel in my study.

Marshall S. Snow, ’61, in Washington University Record.

THE NEW YORK ALUMNI DINNER.

The twenty-seventh annual dinner of the New York Association of
the Alumni of The Phillips Exeter Academy was held at the Hotel Man-
hattan on Tuesday evening, March 30, 1909. There was a record at-
tendance on the part of the alumni, and the enthusiasm of both the
elder and younger graduates over the splendid progress of the school
was most marked. An interesting feature of the occasion was the pres-
ence of William P. Preble, of the class of ’31, who is next to the oldest
graduate of the Academy now living. Mr. Preble was visibly touched
by the cordial reception given him by his fellow alumni, and seemed
as pleased with the dinner as the youngest graduate present.

The president of the association, Charles R. Bangs, ’81, acted as
toastmaster. The Academy was represented by Mr. Amen, Professor
Tufts, and Mr. Shute. Mr. Amen in his usual happy and convincing
manner spoke of the high standard maintained by the school and of
the marked progress made in many departments. He was greeted with
rousing cheers, showing the appreciation by the alumni of his splendid
work since he became principal. The cordial reception given Mr.
Tufts indicates the warm place he occupies in the affections of the Exe-
ter graduates.

Dr. John H. Finley, president of the College of the City of New
York, made an interesting and thoughtful address; and Hugh A.
Bayne, of the New York Andover Association, and the Rev. Robert
MacKenzie, D.D., entertained the diners with, witty speeches.

For years it has been the pleasure of those attending the Exeter
dinner to hear, from S. Sidney Smith, ’66, president of the board of
trustees, whose. devotion to the good of the Academy has become almost